Network Automation Engineer: Roger Perkin CCIE 50038

CCIE, Wireless, F5, Ansible, AWS, Cloud and data centre to Network Automation - my journey as a network engineer

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CCIE BLOG

These pages are no longer being updated as I passed the CCIE Lab exam in August 2015, receiving my CCIE Plaque through the post was the end to a very long journey to become CCIE #50038

I am now focused on Network Automation Training

Mainly Ansible & Python

You can read my entire CCIE Journey here:

My all time top post was:

Other popular posts were:

Remember, the only way to achieve CCIE is "Relentless Pursuit" - Don't give up!

All the posts below are in chronological order from when I passed the CCIE Lab 

CCIE V5 Blueprint

The is the CCIE V5 expanded blueprint from INE – I will be linking from this blueprint to separate blog posts on each topic as my studies progress. The CCIE V5 blueprint from Cisco does not contain all this detail

RSv5 Expanded Blueprint

    • 1.5.1. L2 Protocol Tunneling
    • 1.5.2. Layer 2 MTU
    • 1.6. Miscellaneous
        • 1.6.1. CDP
        • 1.6.2. LLDP
        • 1.6.3. UDLD
        • 1.6.4. CAM Aging Time
        • 1.6.5. SPAN
        • 1.6.6. RSPAN
        • 1.6.7. ERSPAN
        • 1.6.8. Flex Links
      • 1.6.9. Fallback Bridging
      • 1.6.10. Voice VLANs
      • 1.6.11. Smartport Macros1. LAN Switching
          • 1.1. VLANs & Trunking
            • 1.1.1. Standard VLANs
            • 1.1.2. Extended VLANs
            • 1.1.3. VLAN Database
            • 1.1.4. Access Ports
            • 1.1.5. 802.1q Trunk Ports
            • 1.1.6. 802.1q Native VLAN
            • 1.1.7. Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP)
            • 1.1.8. Trunking Allowed List
          • 1.2. VTP
            • 1.2.1. VTP Version 1, 2, & 3
            • 1.2.2. VTP Authentication
            • 1.2.3. VTP Pruning
            • 1.2.4. VTP Prune Eligible List
            • 1.2.5. VTPv3 & Private VLANs
          • 1.3. EtherChannels
            • 1.3.1. Static Layer 2 EtherChannels
            • 1.3.2. PAgP
            • 1.3.3. LACP
            • 1.3.4. Layer 3 EtherChannel
            • 1.3.5. EtherChannel Load Balancing
            • 1.3.6. EtherChannel Protocol Limiting
            • 1.3.7. EtherChannel Misconfig Guard
          • 1.4. Spanning-Tree Protocol
            • 1.4.1. PVST+
              • 1.4.1.1. STP Root Bridge Election
              • 1.4.1.2. STP Path Selection with Port Cost
              • 1.4.1.3. STP Path Selection with Port Priority
              • 1.4.1.4. STP Convergence Timers
            • 1.4.2. Optional STP Features
              • 1.4.2.1. PortFast
              • 1.4.2.2. UplinkFast
              • 1.4.2.3. BackboneFast
              • 1.4.2.4. BPDU Guard
              • 1.4.2.5. BPDU Filter
              • 1.4.2.6. Root Guard
            • 1.4.3. Rapid-PVST+
              • 1.4.3.1. RSTP Convergence Optimizations
              • 1.4.3.2. Edge Ports
            • 1.4.4. Multiple STP
              • 1.4.4.1. MST Root Bridge Election
              • 1.4.4.2. MST Path Selection with Port Cost
              • 1.4.4.3. MST Path Selection with Port Priority
              • 1.4.4.4. MST and CST/PVST+ Interoperability
              • 1.4.4.5. Multi-Region MST
  • 2. Layer 2 WAN Circuits
    • 2.1. HDLC
    • 2.2. PPP
    • 2.3. PPP Authentication
    • 2.4. PPP Multilink
    • 2.5. PPPoE
  • 3. IP Routing
    • 3.1. Protocol Independent IPv4 Routing
      • 3.1.1. IPv4 Addressing
      • 3.1.2. IPv4 ARP
      • 3.1.3. Longest Match Routing
      • 3.1.4. Administrative Distance
      • 3.1.5. Static Routing
      • 3.1.6. Route Recursion
      • 3.1.7. Egress Interface vs. Next Hop Static Routing
      • 3.1.8. Default Routing
      • 3.1.9. CEF
      • 3.1.10. Floating Static Routes
      • 3.1.11. Backup Interface
      • 3.1.12. IP Service Level Agreement
      • 3.1.13. Enhanced Object Tracking
      • 3.1.14. Policy Routing
      • 3.1.15. Policy Routing and IP SLA
      • 3.1.16. Local Policy Routing
      • 3.1.17. GRE Tunnels
      • 3.1.18. IP in IP Tunnels
      • 3.1.19. Tunnels & Recursive Routing Errors
      • 3.1.20. On Demand Routing
      • 3.1.21. VRF Lite
      • 3.1.22. Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
      • 3.1.23. Performance Routing (PfR) *
    • 3.2. Protocol Independent IPv6 Routing
      • 3.2.1. IPv6 Link-Local Addressing
      • 3.2.2. IPv6 Unique Local Addressing
      • 3.2.3. IPv6 Global Aggregatable Addressing
      • 3.2.4. IPv6 EUI-64 Addressing
      • 3.2.5. IPv6 Auto-Configuration / SLAAC
      • 3.2.6. IPv6 Global Prefix
      • 3.2.7. IPv6 Redistribution
      • 3.2.8. IPv6 Filtering
      • 3.2.9. IPv6 NAT-PT
      • 3.2.10. IPv6 MP-BGP
      • 3.2.11. IPv6 Tunneling *
      • 3.2.12. Automatic 6to4 Tunneling*
      • 3.2.13. ISATAP Tunneling *
    • 3.3. Common Dynamic Routing Features
      • 3.3.1. Distance Vector vs. Link State vs. Path Vector routing protocols
      • 3.3.2. Passive Interfaces
      • 3.3.3. Routing Protocol Authentication
      • 3.3.4. Route Filtering
      • 3.3.5. Auto Summarization
      • 3.3.6. Manual Summarization
      • 3.3.7. Route Redistribution
        • 3.3.7.1. Prefix Filtering with Route Tagging
        • 3.3.7.2. Prefix Filtering with Manual Lists
        • 3.3.7.3. Prefix Filtering with Administrative Distance
        • 3.3.7.4. Administrative Distance Based Loops
        • 3.3.7.5. Metric Based Loops
    • 3.4. RIP
      • 3.4.1. RIPv2
        • 3.4.1.1. Initialization
          • 3.4.1.1.1. Enabling RIPv2
          • 3.4.1.1.2. RIP Send and Receive Versions
          • 3.4.1.1.3. Split Horizon
          • 3.4.1.1.4. RIPv2 Unicast Updates
          • 3.4.1.1.5. RIPv2 Broadcast Updates
          • 3.4.1.1.6. RIPv2 Source Validation
        • 3.4.1.2. Path Selection
          • 3.4.1.2.1. Offset List
        • 3.4.1.3. Summarization
          • 3.4.1.3.1. Auto-Summary
          • 3.4.1.3.2. Manual Summarization
        • 3.4.1.4. Authentication
          • 3.4.1.4.1. Clear Text
          • 3.4.1.4.2. MD5
        • 3.4.1.5. Convergence Optimization & Scalability
          • 3.4.1.5.1. RIPv2 Convergence Timers
          • 3.4.1.5.2. RIPv2 Triggered Updates
        • 3.4.1.6. Filtering
          • 3.4.1.6.1. Filtering with Passive Interface
          • 3.4.1.6.2. Filtering with Prefix-Lists
          • 3.4.1.6.3. Filtering with Standard Access-Lists
          • 3.4.1.6.4. Filtering with Extended Access-Lists
          • 3.4.1.6.5. Filtering with Offset Lists
          • 3.4.1.6.6. Filtering with Administrative Distance
          • 3.4.1.6.7. Filtering with Per Neighbor AD
        • 3.4.1.7. Default Routing
          • 3.4.1.7.1. RIPv2 Default Routing
          • 3.4.1.7.2. RIPv2 Conditional Default Routing
          • 3.4.1.7.3. RIPv2 Reliable Conditional Default Routing
      • 3.4.2. RIPng *
        • 3.4.2.1. RIPng Overview *
    • 3.5. EIGRP
      • 3.5.1. Initialization
        • 3.5.1.1. Network Statement
        • 3.5.1.2. Multicast vs. Unicast Updates
        • 3.5.1.3. EIGRP Named Mode
        • 3.5.1.4. EIGRP Multi AF Mode
        • 3.5.1.5. EIGRP Split Horizon
        • 3.5.1.6. EIGRP Next-Hop Processing
      • 3.5.2. Path Selection
        • 3.5.2.1. Feasibility Condition
        • 3.5.2.2. Modifying EIGRP Vector Attributes
        • 3.5.2.3. Classic Metric
        • 3.5.2.4. Wide Metric
        • 3.5.2.5. Metric Weights
        • 3.5.2.6. Equal Cost Load Balancing
        • 3.5.2.7. Unequal Cost Load Balancing
        • 3.5.2.8. EIGRP Add-Path
      • 3.5.3. Summarization
        • 3.5.3.1. Auto-Summary
        • 3.5.3.2. Manual Summarization
        • 3.5.3.3. Summarization with Default Routing
        • 3.5.3.4. Summarization with Leak Map
        • 3.5.3.5. Summary Metric
      • 3.5.4. Authentication
        • 3.5.4.1. MD5
        • 3.5.4.2. HMAC SHA2-256bit
        • 3.5.4.3. Automatic key rollover
      • 3.5.5. Convergence Optimization & Scalability
        • 3.5.5.1. EIGRP Convergence Timers
        • 3.5.5.2. EIGRP Query Scoping with Summarization
        • 3.5.5.3. EIGRP Query Scoping with Stub Routing
        • 3.5.5.4. Stub Routing with Leak Map
        • 3.5.5.5. Bandwidth Pacing
        • 3.5.5.6. IP FRR
        • 3.5.5.7. Graceful Restart & NSF
      • 3.5.6. Filtering
        • 3.5.6.1. Filtering with Passive Interface
        • 3.5.6.2. Filtering with Prefix-Lists
        • 3.5.6.3. Filtering with Standard Access-Lists
        • 3.5.6.4. Filtering with Extended Access-Lists
        • 3.5.6.5. Filtering with Offset Lists
        • 3.5.6.6. Filtering with Administrative Distance
        • 3.5.6.7. Filtering with Per Neighbor AD
        • 3.5.6.8. Filtering with Route Maps
        • 3.5.6.9. Per Neighbor Prefix Limit
        • 3.5.6.10. Redistribution Prefix Limit
      • 3.5.7. Miscellaneous EIGRP
        • 3.5.7.1. EIGRP Default Network
        • 3.5.7.2. EIGRP Default Metric
        • 3.5.7.3. EIGRP Neighbor Logging
        • 3.5.7.4. EIGRP Router-ID
        • 3.5.7.5. EIGRP Maximum Hops
        • 3.5.7.6. no next-hop-self no-ecmp-mode
        • 3.5.7.7. EIGRP Route Tag Enhancements
      • 3.5.8. EIGRPv6
        • 3.5.8.1. Enabling EIGRPv6
        • 3.5.8.2. EIGRPv6 Split Horizon
        • 3.5.8.3. EIGRPv6 Next-Hop Processing
        • 3.5.8.4. EIGRPv6 Authentication
        • 3.5.8.5. EIGRPv6 Metric Manipulation
        • 3.5.8.6. EIGRPv6 Default Routing
        • 3.5.8.7. EIGRPv6 Summarization
        • 3.5.8.8. EIGRPv6 Prefix Filtering
        • 3.5.8.9. EIGRPv6 Stub Routing
        • 3.5.8.10. EIGRPv6 Link Bandwidth
        • 3.5.8.11. EIGRPv6 Timers
        • 3.5.8.12. EIGRP IPv6 VRF Lite
        • 3.5.8.13. EIGRP Over The Top
    • 3.6. OSPF
      • 3.6.1. Initialization
        • 3.6.1.1. Network Statement
        • 3.6.1.2. Interface Statement
      • 3.6.2. Network Types
        • 3.6.2.1. Broadcast
        • 3.6.2.2. Non-Broadcast
        • 3.6.2.3. OSPF DR/BDR Election Manipulation
        • 3.6.2.4. Point-to-Point
        • 3.6.2.5. Point-to-Multipoint
        • 3.6.2.6. Point-to-Multipoint Non-Broadcast
        • 3.6.2.7. Loopback
        • 3.6.2.8. LSA Types
        • 3.6.2.9. OSPF Next-Hop Processing
        • 3.6.2.10. Unicast vs. Multicast Hellos
      • 3.6.3. Path Selection
        • 3.6.3.1. Auto-Cost
        • 3.6.3.2. Cost
        • 3.6.3.3. Bandwidth
        • 3.6.3.4. Per-Neighbor Cost
        • 3.6.3.5. Non-Backbone Transit Areas
        • 3.6.3.6. Virtual-Links
      • 3.6.4. Authentication
        • 3.6.4.1. Area
        • 3.6.4.2. Interface level
        • 3.6.4.3. Clear Text
        • 3.6.4.4. MD5
        • 3.6.4.5. Null
        • 3.6.4.6. MD5 with Multiple Keys
        • 3.6.4.7. SHA1-196
        • 3.6.4.8. Virtual link
      • 3.6.5. Summarization
        • 3.6.5.1. Internal Summarization
        • 3.6.5.2. External Summarization
        • 3.6.5.3. Path Selection with Summarization
        • 3.6.5.4. Summarization and Discard Routes
      • 3.6.6. Stub Areas
        • 3.6.6.1. Stub Areas
        • 3.6.6.2. Totally Stubby Areas
        • 3.6.6.3. Not-So-Stubby Areas
        • 3.6.6.4. Not-So-Stubby Areas and Default Routing
        • 3.6.6.5. Not-So-Totally-Stubby Areas
        • 3.6.6.6. Stub Areas with Multiple Exit Points
        • 3.6.6.7. NSSA Type-7 to Type-5 Translator Election
        • 3.6.6.8. NSSA Redistribution Filtering
      • 3.6.7. Filtering
        • 3.6.7.1. Filtering with Distribute-Lists
        • 3.6.7.2. Filtering with Administrative Distance
        • 3.6.7.3. Filtering with Route-Maps
        • 3.6.7.4. Filtering with Summarization
        • 3.6.7.5. LSA Type-3 Filtering
        • 3.6.7.6. Forwarding Address Suppression
        • 3.6.7.7. NSSA ABR External Prefix Filtering
        • 3.6.7.8. Database Filtering
      • 3.6.8. Default Routing
        • 3.6.8.1. Default Routing
        • 3.6.8.2. Conditional Default Routing
        • 3.6.8.3. Reliable Conditional Default Routing
        • 3.6.8.4. Default Cost
      • 3.6.9. Convergence Optimization & Scalability
        • 3.6.9.1. Interface Timers
        • 3.6.9.2. Fast Hellos
        • 3.6.9.3. LSA & SPF Throttling
        • 3.6.9.4. LSA & SPF Pacing
        • 3.6.9.5. Single Hop LFA / IP FRR
        • 3.6.9.6. Multihop LFA
        • 3.6.9.7. Stub Router Advertisement
        • 3.6.9.8. Demand Circuit
        • 3.6.9.9. Flooding Reduction
        • 3.6.9.10. Transit Prefix Filtering
        • 3.6.9.11. Resource Limiting
        • 3.6.9.12. Graceful Restart & NSF
        • 3.6.9.13. Incremental SPF
      • 3.6.10. Miscellaneous OSPF Features
      • 3.6.11. OSPFv3
        • 3.6.11.1. LSA Types
        • 3.6.11.2. OSPFv3
        • 3.6.11.3. OSPFv3 Network Types
        • 3.6.11.4. OSPFv3 Prefix Suppression
        • 3.6.11.5. OSPFv3 Virtual Links
        • 3.6.11.6. OSPFv3 Summarization
        • 3.6.11.7. OSPFv3 IPsec Authentication
        • 3.6.11.8. OSPFv3 Multi AF Mode
        • 3.6.11.9. TTL Security
    • 3.7. BGP
      • 3.7.1. Establishing Peerings
        • 3.7.1.1. iBGP Peerings
        • 3.7.1.2. EBGP Peerings
        • 3.7.1.3. Update Source Modification
        • 3.7.1.4. Multihop EBGP Peerings
        • 3.7.1.5. Neighbor Disable-Connected-Check
        • 3.7.1.6. Authentication
        • 3.7.1.7. TTL Security
        • 3.7.1.8. BGP Peer Groups
        • 3.7.1.9. 4 Byte ASNs
        • 3.7.1.10. Active vs. Passive Peers
        • 3.7.1.11. Path MTU Discovery
        • 3.7.1.12. Multi Session TCP Transport per AF
        • 3.7.1.13. Dynamic BGP Peering
      • 3.7.2. iBGP Scaling
        • 3.7.2.1. Route Reflectors
        • 3.7.2.2. Route Reflector Clusters
        • 3.7.2.3. Confederations
      • 3.7.3. BGP Next Hop Processing
        • 3.7.3.1. Next-Hop-Self
        • 3.7.3.2. Manual Next-Hop Modification
        • 3.7.3.3. Third Party Next Hop
        • 3.7.3.4. Next Hop Tracking
        • 3.7.3.5. Conditional Next Hop Tracking
        • 3.7.3.6. BGP Next-Hop Trigger Delay
      • 3.7.4. BGP NLRI Origination
        • 3.7.4.1. Network Statement
        • 3.7.4.2. Redistribution
        • 3.7.4.3. BGP Redistribute Internal
        • 3.7.4.4. Conditional Advertisement
        • 3.7.4.5. Conditional Route Injection
      • 3.7.5. BGP Bestpath Selection
        • 3.7.5.1. Weight
        • 3.7.5.2. Local Preference
        • 3.7.5.3. AS-Path Prepending
        • 3.7.5.4. Origin
        • 3.7.5.5. MED
        • 3.7.5.6. Always Compare MED
        • 3.7.5.7. Deterministic MED
        • 3.7.5.8. AS-Path Ignore
        • 3.7.5.9. Router-IDs
        • 3.7.5.10. DMZ Link Bandwidth
        • 3.7.5.11. Maximum AS Limit
        • 3.7.5.12. Multipath
      • 3.7.6. BGP Aggregation
        • 3.7.6.1. BGP Auto-Summary
        • 3.7.6.2. Aggregation
        • 3.7.6.3. Summary Only
        • 3.7.6.4. Suppress Map
        • 3.7.6.5. Unsuppress Map
        • 3.7.6.6. AS-Set
        • 3.7.6.7. Attribute-Map
        • 3.7.6.8. Advertise Map
      • 3.7.7. BGP Communities
        • 3.7.7.1. Standard
        • 3.7.7.2. Extended
        • 3.7.7.3. No-Advertise
        • 3.7.7.4. No-Export
        • 3.7.7.5. Local-AS
        • 3.7.7.6. Deleting
      • 3.7.8. Filtering
        • 3.7.8.1. Prefix-Lists
        • 3.7.8.2. Standard Access-Lists Task
        • 3.7.8.3. Extended Access-Lists
        • 3.7.8.4. Maximum Prefix
        • 3.7.8.5. BGP Regular Expressions
        • 3.7.8.6. Outbound Route Filtering (ORF)
        • 3.7.8.7. Soft Reconfiguration Inbound
      • 3.7.9. AS-Path Manipulation
        • 3.7.9.1. Local AS
        • 3.7.9.2. Local AS Replace-AS/Dual-AS
        • 3.7.9.3. Remove Private AS
        • 3.7.9.4. Allow AS In
        • 3.7.9.5. AS Override
      • 3.7.10. BGP Convergence Optimization
        • 3.7.10.1. BGP Timers Tuning
        • 3.7.10.2. BGP Fast Fallover
        • 3.7.10.3. BGP Prefix Independent Convergence (PIC)
        • 3.7.10.4. BGP Dampening
        • 3.7.10.5. BGP Dampening with Route-Map
        • 3.7.10.6. BGP Add Path
      • 3.7.11. BGP Default Routing
      • 3.7.12. IPv6 BGP
      • 3.7.13. Misc BGP
        • 3.7.13.1. iBGP Synchronization
        • 3.7.13.2. BGP over GRE
        • 3.7.13.3. BGP Backdoor
    • 3.8. Route Redistribution
      • 3.8.1. Metric Based Loops
      • 3.8.2. Administrative Distance Based Loops
      • 3.8.3. Route Tag Filtering
      • 3.8.4. IP Route Profile
      • 3.8.5. Debug IP Routing
    • 3.9. Miscellaneous Routing Features
    • 3.10. IS-IS *
  • 4. VPN
    • 4.1. MPLS
      • 4.1.1. VRF Lite
      • 4.1.2. MPLS LDP
      • 4.1.3. MPLS Ping
      • 4.1.4. MPLS Traceroute
      • 4.1.5. MPLS Label Filtering
      • 4.1.6. MP-BGP VPNv4
      • 4.1.7. MP-BGP Prefix Filtering
      • 4.1.8. PE-CE Routing with RIP
      • 4.1.9. PE-CE Routing with OSPF
      • 4.1.10. OSPF Sham-Link
      • 4.1.11. PE-CE Routing with EIGRP
      • 4.1.12. EIGRP Site-of-Origin
      • 4.1.13. PE-CE Routing with BGP
      • 4.1.14. BGP SoO Attribute
      • 4.1.15. Internet Access
      • 4.1.16. Route Leaking
      • 4.1.17. MPLS VPN Performance Tuning
      • 4.1.18. AToM *
      • 4.1.19. L2TPV3 *
      • 4.1.20. VPLS *
    • 4.2. IPsec LAN-to-LAN
      • 4.2.1. ISAKMP Policies
      • 4.2.2. PSK Authentication
      • 4.2.3. Static Crypto Maps
      • 4.2.4. IPsec over GRE
      • 4.2.5. Static VTI
      • 4.2.6. GETVPN *
    • 4.3. DMVPN
      • 4.3.1. Single Hub
      • 4.3.2. NHRP
      • 4.3.3. DMVPN Phase 1, 2, & 3
      • 4.3.4. QoS Profiles
      • 4.3.5. QoS Pre-Classify
  • 5. Multicast
    • 5.1. Layer 2 Multicast
      • 5.1.1. IGMPv1, IGMPv2, IGMPv3
      • 5.1.2. IGMP Snooping
      • 5.1.3. IGMP Querier Election
      • 5.1.4. IGMP Filtering
      • 5.1.5. IGMP Proxy
      • 5.1.6. IGMP Timers
      • 5.1.7. Multicast VLAN Registration
      • 5.1.8. IGMP Profiles
    • 5.2. IPv4 Multicast Routing
      • 5.2.1. PIM Dense Mode
      • 5.2.2. PIM Sparse Mode
      • 5.2.3. PIM Sparse Dense Mode
      • 5.2.4. Static RP
      • 5.2.5. Auto-RP
        • 5.2.5.1. Auto-RP
        • 5.2.5.2. Sparse Dense Mode
        • 5.2.5.3. Auto-RP Listener
        • 5.2.5.4. Multiple Candidate RPs
        • 5.2.5.5. Filtering Candidate RPs
        • 5.2.5.6. RP & MA placement problems
      • 5.2.6. Bootstrap Router
        • 5.2.6.1. BSR
        • 5.2.6.2. Multiple RP Candidates
        • 5.2.6.3. Multiple BSR Candidates
      • 5.2.7. Source Specific Multicast
      • 5.2.8. Bidirectional PIM
      • 5.2.9. Group to RP Mapping
      • 5.2.10. Anycast RP
      • 5.2.11. MSDP
      • 5.2.12. MSDP SA Filtering
      • 5.2.13. Multicast TTL Scoping
      • 5.2.14. Auto-RP & BSR Boundary Filtering
      • 5.2.15. PIM Accept Register Filtering
      • 5.2.16. PIM Accept RP Filtering
      • 5.2.17. RPF Failure
      • 5.2.18. Registration Failure
      • 5.2.19. PIM DR Election
      • 5.2.20. PIM DF Election
      • 5.2.21. PIM Assert
      • 5.2.22. Static Multicast Routes
      • 5.2.23. Multicast BGP
      • 5.2.24. PIM NBMA Mode
      • 5.2.25. Multicast over GRE
      • 5.2.26. Stub Multicast Routing
      • 5.2.27. Multicast Helper Map
      • 5.2.28. Multicast Rate Limiting
      • 5.2.29. Multicast BGP
    • 5.3. IPv6 Multicast Routing *
      • 5.3.1. IPv6 PIM and MLD *
      • 5.3.2. IPv6 PIM BSR *
      • 5.3.3. IPv6 Embedded RP *
      • 5.3.4. IPv6 SSM *
  • 6. QoS
    • 6.1. Hold-Queue and Tx-Ring
    • 6.2. Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)
    • 6.3. Selective Packet Discard
    • 6.4. Payload Compression on Serial Links
    • 6.5. Generic TCP/UDP Header Compression
    • 6.6. MLP Link Fragmentation and Interleaving
    • 6.7. MQC Classification and Marking
    • 6.8. MQC Bandwidth Reservations and CBWFQ
    • 6.9. MQC Bandwidth Percent
    • 6.10. MQC LLQ and Remaining Bandwidth Reservations
    • 6.11. MQC WRED
    • 6.12. MQC Dynamic Flows and WRED
    • 6.13. MQC WRED with ECN
    • 6.14. MQC Class-Based Generic Traffic Shaping
    • 6.15. MQC Class-Based GTS and CBWFQ
    • 6.16. MQC Single-Rate Three-Color Policer
    • 6.17. MQC Hierarchical Policers
    • 6.18. MQC Two-Rate Three-Color Policer
    • 6.19. MQC Peak Shaping
    • 6.20. MQC Percent-Based Policing
    • 6.21. MQC Header Compression
    • 6.22. Voice Adaptive Traffic Shaping
    • 6.23. Voice Adaptive Fragmentation
    • 6.24. Advanced HTTP Classification with NBAR
    • 6.22. Layer 2 QoS *
  • 7. Security
    • 7.1. Layer 2 Security
      • 7.1.1. Port Protection
      • 7.1.2. Private VLANs
      • 7.1.3. Port Based ACLs
      • 7.1.4. VLAN ACLs for IP Traffic
      • 7.1.5. VLAN ACLs for Non-IP Traffic
      • 7.1.6. Storm Control
      • 7.1.7. Port Security
      • 7.1.8. HSRP and Port-Security
      • 7.1.9. ErrDisable Recovery
      • 7.1.10. DHCP Snooping
      • 7.1.11. DHCP Snooping and the Information Option
      • 7.1.12. Dynamic ARP Inspection
      • 7.1.13. IP Source Guard
      • 7.1.14. 802.1x *
    • 7.2. Management Plane Security
      • 7.2.1. AAA Authentication Lists
      • 7.2.2. AAA Exec Authorization
      • 7.2.3. AAA Local Command Authorization
      • 7.2.4. Controlling Terminal Line Access
      • 7.2.5. IOS Login Enhancements
      • 7.2.6. IOS Resilient Configuration
      • 7.2.7. Role-Based CLI
      • 7.2.8. AAA with TACACS+ and RADIUS *
    • 7.3. Control Plane Security
      • 7.3.1. Controlling the ICMP Messages Rate
      • 7.3.2. Control Plane Policing
      • 7.3.3. Control Plane Protection (CPPr)
      • 7.3.4. Control Plane Host
    • 7.4. Data Plane Security
        • 7.4.1. Traffic Filtering Using Standard Access-Lists
        • 7.4.2. Traffic Filtering Using Extended Access-Lists
        • 7.4.3. Traffic Filtering Using Reflexive Access-Lists
        • 7.4.4. IPv6 Traffic Filter
        • 7.4.5. Filtering Fragmented Packets
        • 7.4.6. Filtering Packets with Dynamic Access-Lists
        • 7.4.7. Filtering Traffic with Time-Based Access Lists
        • 7.4.8. Traffic Filtering with Policy-Based Routing
        • 7.4.9. Preventing Packet Spoofing with uRPF
        • 7.4.10. Using NBAR for Content-Based Filtering
        • 7.4.11. TCP Intercept
        • 7.4.12. TCP Intercept Watch Mode
        • 7.4.13. Packet Logging with Access-Lists
        • 7.4.14. IP Source Tracker
        • 7.4.15. Router IP Traffic Export (RITE)
      • 7.4.16. IOS ACL Selective IP Option Drop
      • 7.4.17. Flexible Packet Matching
      • 7.4.18. IPv6 First Hop Security
        • 7.4.18.1. RA guard
        • 7.4.18.2. DHCP guard
        • 7.4.18.3. Binding table
        • 7.4.18.4. Device tracking
        • 7.4.18.5. ND inspection/snooping
        • 7.4.18.6. Source guard
        • 7.4.18.7. PACL
  • 8. System Management
    • 8.1. Device Management
      • 8.1.1. Console
      • 8.1.2. Telnet
        • 8.1.2.1. Telnet Service Options
      • 8.1.3. SSH
      • 8.1.4. Terminal Line Settings
      • 8.1.5. HTTP Server and Client
      • 8.1.6. FTP Server and Client
      • 8.1.7. TFTP Server and Client
      • 8.1.8. SNMP
        • 8.1.8.1. SNMPv2 Server
        • 8.1.8.2. SNMPv2c Access Control
        • 8.1.8.3. SNMP Traps and Informs
        • 8.1.8.4. CPU and Memory Thresholds
        • 8.1.8.5. SNMPv3
        • 8.1.8.6. SNMP MAC Address Notifications
        • 8.1.8.7. SNMP Notifications of Syslog Messages
    • 8.2. Logging
      • 8.2.1. System Message Logging
      • 8.2.2. Syslog Logging
      • 8.2.3. Logging Counting and Timestamps
      • 8.2.4. Logging to Flash Memory
      • 8.2.5. Configuration Change Notification and Logging
      • 8.2.6. Configuration Archive and Rollback
      • 8.2.7. Logging with Access-Lists
    • 8.3. NTP
      • 8.3.1. NTP
      • 8.3.2. NTP Authentication
      • 8.3.3. NTP Access Control
      • 8.3.4. NTP Version 3 & 4
    • 8.4. EEM
      • 8.4.1. KRON Command Schedule
      • 8.4.2. EEM Scripting: Interface Events
      • 8.4.3. EEM Scripting: Syslog Events
      • 8.4.4. EEM Scripting: CLI Events
      • 8.4.5. EEM Scripting: Periodic Scheduling
      • 8.4.6. EEM Scripting: Advanced Features
      • 8.4.7. EEM Applets
    • 8.5. Miscellaneous System Management
      • 8.5.1. Auto-Install over LAN Interfaces using DHCP
      • 8.5.2. Auto-Install over LAN Interfaces Using RARP
      • 8.5.3. IOS Menus
      • 8.5.4. IOS Banners
      • 8.5.5. Exec Aliases
      • 8.5.6. TCP Keepalives
      • 8.5.7. Generating Exception Core Dumps
      • 8.5.8. Conditional Debugging
      • 8.5.9. Tuning Packet Buffers
      • 8.5.10. CDP
      • 8.5.11. Remote Shell
  • 9. Network Services
    • 9.1. Object Tracking
      • 9.1.1. IP SLA
      • 9.1.2. Enhanced Object Tracking
      • 9.1.3. Tracking Lists
    • 9.2. First Hop Redundancy Protocols
      • 9.2.1. HSRP
      • 9.2.2. VRRP
      • 9.2.3. GLBP
      • 9.2.4. Router Redundancy and Object Tracking
      • 9.2.5. IPv6 RS & RA Redundancy
    • 9.3. DHCP
      • 9.3.1. DHCP Server
      • 9.3.2. DHCP Client
      • 9.3.3. DHCP Relay
      • 9.3.4. DHCP Host Pools
      • 9.3.5. DHCP On-Demand Pool
      • 9.3.6. DHCP Proxy
      • 9.3.7. DHCP Information Option
      • 9.3.8. DHCP Authorized ARP
      • 9.3.9. SLAAC/DHCPv6 interaction
      • 9.3.10. Stateful & Stateless DHCPv6
      • 9.3.11. DHCPv6 prefix delegation
    • 9.4. DNS
      • 9.4.1. IOS Authoritative DNS Server
      • 9.4.2. IOS Caching DNS Server
      • 9.4.3. IOS DNS Spoofing
    • 9.5. NAT
      • 9.5.1. Basic NAT
      • 9.5.2. NAT Overload
      • 9.5.3. NAT with Route Maps
      • 9.5.4. Static NAT
      • 9.5.5. Static PAT
      • 9.5.6. Static NAT and IP Aliasing
      • 9.5.7. Static Policy NAT
      • 9.5.8. NAT with Overlapping Subnets
      • 9.5.9. TCP Load Distribution with NAT
      • 9.5.10. Stateful NAT with HSRP
      • 9.5.11. Stateful NAT with Primary/Backup
      • 9.5.12. NAT Virtual Interface
      • 9.5.13. NAT Default Interface
      • 9.5.14. Reversible NAT
      • 9.5.15. Static Extendable NAT
      • 9.5.16. NAT ALG
    • 9.6. Traffic Accounting
      • 9.6.1. IP Precedence Accounting
      • 9.6.2. IP Output Packet Accounting
      • 9.6.3. IP Access Violation Accounting
      • 9.6.4. MAC Address Accounting
    • 9.7. NetFlow
      • 9.7.1. Netflow v5 & v9
      • 9.7.2. Netflow Ingress and Egress
      • 9.7.3. Netflow Top Talkers
      • 9.7.4. Netflow Aggregation Cache
      • 9.7.5. Netflow Random Sampling
      • 9.7.6. Netflow Input Filters
      • 9.7.7. Netflow Export
    • 9.8. Miscellaneous Network Services
      • 9.8.1. Proxy ARP
      • 9.8.2. IRDP
      • 9.8.3. Router ICMP Settings
        • 9.8.3.1. TCP Optimization
      • 9.8.4. IOS Small Services and Finger
      • 9.8.5. Directed Broadcasts and UDP Forwarding
      • 9.8.6. NBAR Protocol Discovery
      • 9.8.7. IP Event Dampening
      • 9.8.8. Conditional Debugging
      • 9.8.9. Embedded Packet Capture
      • 9.8.10. Interpreting Packet Captures

9 Best Websites if you want to Become a CCIE

During my CCIE journey I have used many online resources from paid to free, the list below shows my top 10 ccie related websites that I used on a regular basis to to get information and study material. These range from Cisco to training providers and personal blogs. All which provided benefits to my study.

cisco logo

The number 1 resource for any CCIE track. You could pass any CCIE exam purely with the material on this website. It contains all the exam information, the blueprints and of course the configuration guides. The Learning network is amazing and the forums contain a wealth of knowledge sharing. The list could stop here as all the information you need is available from this website, however a lot of people like to read others opinions and viewpoints which is why I have 8 more websites for you to check out.

ine logo

Most CCIE candidates will use a training provider and the one I chose personally was INE this was based on a few decisions but mainly because I really liked their training  materials and in particular the Advanced Technology Class videos. They have a very active forum and blog where there were regular postings from many candidates and for me when the version changed from v4 to V5 INE were quick to respond and update their training materials and due to the investment protection programme, I got all the updates for free. When I was studying at full speed I would visit this website on a daily basis. I would like to personally thank Brian Dennis and Brian McGahan for their input into the training materials as without them I would not be where I am today.

The decision on which training vendor to go with is very personal and I know some candidates that purchased material from both vendors. I chose to stick to one vendor. You have all the options and if you have not yet decided on which vendor to go with I would recommend spending a lot of time with each one to see which style you like the best, as over the course of the next few months / years you will be listening to their voices a lot!

packetlife logo

The list now moves onto personal blogs and one that I did read a lot was packetlife.net by Jeremy Stretch. Many times when searching for a topic packetlife came up in my search and as always Jeremy provided a very straight talking post on a particular topic. One post that really helped me get my head around MPLS was this one. When learning any technology it always helped me to get multiple perspectives on the subject and sometimes it was just having something explained in a little different way that just made it click.

gns3vault logo

If you are studying for any Cisco exam and in particular CCIE Routing & Switching you will find GNS3 an invaluable tool to use for setting up small topologies. GNS3vault is an amazing free resource setup up by René Molenaar which has 100’s of free labs covering CCNA, CCNP and CCIE related material. If you want to learn a technology just sign up to the site and then try out the labs. Each one talks you through a simple topology and a scenario and most of them also have a video explanation at the end.

routing-bits-thumb

Authored by Dual CCIE Ruhann Du Plessis the Routing-Bits Handbook was Ruhann’s study notes when he took the CCIE in Routing & Switching, he has also authored a SP version as well. The R&S version covers Version 4 and as far as I am aware has not been updated to cover the V5 material. It is a text document just covering all the technologies. Available from www.routing-bits.com this is the only other material apart from the INE workbooks and videos that I purchased. I kept the pdf on my ipad and when I had ten minutes just read through a few pages. As well as that his blog does contain some very good articles for another perspective on different technologies.

darrens blog logo

Simply titled Darrens Blog – this blog takes you through his journey to become a dual CCIE in R&S and SP and also some information on the JNCIE – during my early studies I would always look out for Darrens next post as he was ahead of me in my studies so everything he published was always great content which stretched my understanding more – he now works for Google.

daniels networking blog

Another great blog from Daniel titled Daniels Networking Blog. He was also ahead of me in my journey so as with Darrens blog I was always keeping an eye on Daniels blog to see what he was posting and there was always something to keep me interested and constantly learning. Daniel is CCIE# 37149 passing a short time before Darren – there is a lot of great content on this site and as with Darren he continues to post great content on a regular basis.

2 non-technical websites, but both products I used every day during my CCIE journey

bose logo

These last 2 are not technical websites in any way and I must point out I am not being sponsored to put these here. The following two items of tech have really helped me through my CCIE journey, firstly my Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones. Being able to study anywhere is a great thing but background noise is a huge distraction. Early on in my studies after becoming very frustrated with my current headphones I looked into the best noise cancelling headphones you can buy. The Bose QC15s where the model I chose and believe me they are not cheap, but they are worth every penny. I can put them on and watch a video, listen to music and basically switch off the world which greatly helped me grab extra study time on the train, on a plane and even just waiting in the dentist. Through my entire CCIE journey I can say that I must have worn these headphones pretty much every day.

If you have trouble focussing on your studies get a pair of these and trust me you won’t regret it.

the rooststand

Hunched over your laptop during the day is bad enough but when you have to study all evening and the weekends as well your neck and shoulders start to complain. I was looking for a solution to this problem and I had all my study material on my laptop so didn’t want to move back to a desktop or be bothered with multiple screens. This is where I discovered the Roost Stand this is a foldable portable laptop stand that you can take with you anywhere. It elevates your laptop screen to a more comfortable height which eases the strain on your neck and shoulders caused by looking down at your screen. You will need to use an external mouse and keyboard but it is such neat solution and fits right into your rucksack.

The version I purchased was an initial run on kickstarter and has completely sold out but they have now re-designed and are about to release version 2 – this is currently available for pre-order from www.therooststand.com

Conclusion:

So there you have it 9 websites you need to visit if want to become a CCIE.

I hope this has provided you some information that you didn’t previously know and please share this post on all the normal channels. If you want to become a CCIE you also need a lab – check out my post here on “How to build a CCIE Lab with CSR1000v routers“

Roger

CCIE Benefits – What are they?

Now that I have passed the CCIE Lab exam people are asking me “What are the CCIE benefits?”

As for tangible benefits to me personally they are in no particular order:

  • I can now go to the CCIE Apparel store and purchase my CCIE Leather Jacket and other clothing with my CCIE digits on them – yay!
  • You used to get TAC cases escalated to a L3 engineer by logging it as a CCIE but I am not sure if that is still the case now.
  • I of course get my CCIE Plaque through the post which is one of reasons for all those hours of studying.
  • Personally I know that I have achieved it and passed the exam which is accepted worldwide as the most prestigious networking certification in the industry.
  • It is great to have on your CV and the personal satisfaction of passing this exam is immense.

For my employer they can now use my CCIE number to maintain their partner status.

The question now is how much do you broadcast that you are a CCIE. By achieving this certification you are seen by many as knowing everything, which is certainly not the case.

Without taking anything away from the years of study and the 8 hour exam which I sat through many times, I have proved that I can pass the exam set by Cisco which required me on the day to troubleshoot some issues and configure a network in a specific way defined by Cisco.

Am I going to bring it up in conversation all the time, put it on my email signature and wear my badge everywhere, no.

You prove you are a CCIE by your actions and not your certification.

What I have achieved is a certification. I can now team this with real world experience.

The CCIE does not teach you how to:

  • Co-ordinate late night changes on multiple systems from different vendors.
  • Create a bill of materials for a new network project.
  • Project manage 3 engineers to install new hardware at multiple remote sites with minimal downtime.

The list goes on.

I cannot be happier to have passed the CCIE Lab Exam and it is to date my biggest achievement academically since getting my degree over 20 years ago.

Will I order the leather jacket? I doubt it.

I am just counting the days until my plaque arrives and I can proudly mount it above my desk, and every day be reminded of the journey it took to get there.

The certification is the icing on the cake, it was the journey that made me the person I am today.

Roger

I passed the CCIE Lab Exam!

ccie routing and switching logoWell the post that I have been dreaming of writing since the start of this blog is actually being written.

I passed the CCIE Lab Exam in Routing and Switching v5 in Brussels last week and am now CCIE #50038

It has been a journey and as readers of this blog will know it is not my first or second attempt, but I have got there in the end.

My journey started many years ago and has spanned two versions of the lab exam with my first attempt in April 2013

www.rogerperkin.co.uk/ccie/ccie-lab-attempt-1-brussels-close-no-cigar

Previous to my first attempt I had used INE materials and attended two bootcamps.

My second attempt was at the mobile lab in London and due to many factors apart from being not on top of troubleshooting again and running out of time was a really bad nights sleep. Do not underestimate this – it can really ruin your day.

www.rogerperkin.co.uk/ccie/ccie-lab-exam-attempt-2-fail/

I then made one more attempt at V4 and managed to get a very rare seat days before the version change hoping to nail it but again this time I had L2 issues and then ran out of time in the config with no time to verify.

https://www.rogerperkin.co.uk/ccie/ccie-lab/ccie-version-4-one-attempt/

So I then moved onto version 5 – I was not going to jump straight in as I had some new technologies to learn, mainly DMVPN.

I also had to really work on my config strategy which I had spent a lot of time on, the main strategy to this is to not do the configuration in the order of questions presented to you, spend some time at the beginning of the lab going through all the questions and grouping together some common configuration tasks relating to groups of devices. This is a much more efficient way of approaching the configuration section and by putting all your config in notepad first before pasting into the devices you can visually check it for minor errors.

Using this approach gave me the time I needed in my passing attempt to verify everything and you would be surprised how many small errors and missed config you pick up, I would say that on my verification run I probably picked up about 8 points which is the difference between passing and failing.

So finally in August 2015 I passed the lab exam and am now looking forward to my next challenge.

I will continue with the blog but the topics will be more varied now and not purely focussed on CCIE related material.

CCIE Podcast Pilot Episode 1

[podcast title=”CCIE Podcast – Pilot Episode 1″]https://www.rogerperkin.co.uk/podcast/The-CCIE-Podcast-Pilot-Episode-1.m4a[/podcast]

This is the pilot episode of the CCIE Podcast, a project I started in April 2015 and never completed, but I am now going to test the water.

Please note this episode was recorded in April 2015 before my attempt at the exam in May 2015.

This pilot episode provides an introduction of who I am and some basic facts about the CCIE and studying etc.

Please leave any feedback in the comments below as I plan to pick this project up again and to get it live on itunes at point.

For now please enjoy the Pilot Episode of the CCIE podcast.

NOTE: No further episodes have been recorded since this pilot episode. It is a project I want to resume but currently is not being worked on

Roger

Spanning-Tree Portfast – The Definitive Guide

The spanning-tree portfast command is a very simple feature but often mis-understood.
In this short post I will explore how this feature behaves, how it works and how to configure it on a cisco switch.
Portfast is a Cisco Propietary feature that was originally developed to overcome an issue when a PC was trying to obtain a DHCP address and going past the DHCP process before the port had gone into a forwarding state. The portfast feature brought the port into a forwarding state as soon as it came up enabling the PC to obtain a DHCP address. The feature was then standardised and is now called the Edge port.

This is the main point to be remembered.

An interface that has portfast configured on it will skip the listening and learning phases of spanning tree but only when the interface comes up.

Configuring Spanning Tree Portfast

There are two ways of configuring portfast globally and per interface.

In both cases these features are conditional upon incoming BPDUs

If portfast is configured on a port and it receives a BPDU the port will disable the portfast feature.

Another mis-conception is that when portfast is enabled on a port that it will stop sending BPDUs, this is not true the only thing that enabling portfast on a cisco switch does is to disable the listening and learning phases, all other elements are still there. BPDUs will still be sent and BPDUs being received will be processed.

Interface Configuration

To configure an interface with portfast, under the interface configuration simply enter the command spanning-tree portfast
you will receive a warning which I will explain later.

SW1#conf t
SW1#int fa0/23
SW#(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast

%Warning: Portfast should only be enabled on ports connected to a single host. 
Connecting hubs, concentrators, switches, bridges, etc... to this interface 
when portfast is enabled, can cause temporary bridging loops.
Use with caution
%Portfast has been configured on FastEthernet0/23 but will only have effect 
when the interfaceis in a non-trunking mode.

When configuring per-interface you also have the option to configure trunk mode.

SW1(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast ?
disable Disable portfast for this interface
trunk Enable portfast on the interface even in trunk mode
<cr>

SW1(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast

This will also enable portfast on trunk links also.

Global Configuration

To configure portfast globally under global configuration mode enter the command spanning-tree portfast default

This will enable portfast on all operational access ports.

SW1(config)#spanning-tree port
SW1(config)#spanning-tree portfast default
%Warning: this command enables portfast by default on all interfaces. You
should now disable portfast explicitly on switched ports leading to hubs,
switches and bridges as they may create temporary bridging loops.

SW1(config)#

Now this is how you actually configure it, but you also have to be very aware of the operational portfast status of a port. Other features depend on the operational status of portfast for correct operation. One of these is bpduguard.

If configured globally bpduguard will only take effect on ports that have their ports in a portfast operational status.

Irrespective of the configuration on a port the command below will show you the actual portfast operational status.

SW1#sh spanning-tree interface fa0/23 portfast 
VLAN0010 disabled

If we show the configuration on this port you will see that we have actually configured portfast

SW1#sh run int fa0/23
Building configuration...
!
interface FastEthernet0/23
 switchport access vlan 10
 switchport mode access
 spanning-tree portfast
end

So why is it disabled? The reason is because the other end of fa0/23 is connected to SW2 the port has received a BPDU and disabled the portfast status

So if we tried to enable bpduguard globally this would  have no effect at all as the portfast status is disabled. This is what we want as if this was an access port and not connected to a switch it would not be receiving BPDUs and thus the portfast status would be enabled. Then when enabling bpduguard it would be operational and be ready to shut down the port if it received any BPDUs on that port indicating that someone had connected a switch to an access port.

BPDU Guard – any received BPDU will cause the port to go into err-disabled state.

Another  feature that interacts with the operational portfast status of a port is BPDU Filter 

The video below from Marco explains the interaction better than I can.

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The Author

roger perkin ccie network automation engineer
Roger Perkin, (CCIE #50038) is a Senior Network & Security Consultant. Currently working as a Network Automation Engineer for a Cisco Gold Partner
Roger is an evangelist for Network Automation and is continuing to develop skills in Ansible and the Devops culture.

Contact Roger

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